Advice? Vancouver, BC > Oregon Coast > California Coast > Anaheim

Hey there i was wondering if someone could offer me some advice for a road trip that i'm planning with my girlfriend in late march/early april 2010. (i know it's not summer.. but it's still in the planning stages so i thought this would be the more appropriate forum to post it in...

Last year, we took a quick drive down the I5 from Vancouver all the way to Anaheim to go to Disneyland for new years eve. We discovered a lot about eachother on that drive, as driving through Mt. Shasta in whiteout conditions at night with a semi in front, beside, and behind us on that windy stretch really helped us trust eachother. We stayed the night that time in Redding, before continuing on with the drive south, so we know a thing or two about long days of driving.

This time, we want to take in more of the scenery. The plan is to drive down the coast highways.. i've been planning it a bit on google maps, and this is what we've come up with thus far... Bear with me, this may take some explaining....

Next morning...
Crescent City CA > Trinidad/Eureka
Trinidad/Eureka > Mendocino
Mendocino >Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay > San Jose
(Spend the night in San Jose.. the following day take in the Vancouver Canucks/San Jose Sharks NHL game from the HP Pavillion)

Following day...
drive back up the I5, stopping in redding for a night, before continuing the drive back home.

Total time away - about a week and a day or so.

I'm not really concerned about the drive back - i've done that drive already - in winter-so i'mnot too concerned...
But i'm wondering about the drive down... Google maps was REALLY finicky trying to select the correct routes.. we obviously want to take either the 101 or the 1 the entire way down wherever possible. Would plugging this info into a GPS just give me headaches? I know that GPS always tries to give you the fastest route, so we're going to be going against the GPS pretty much the whole way down.

Also, Are there some places that we should definitely take in on the Oregon / California coasts that i have missed? i don't know a great deal about the area, so it would be a shame to miss something. Obviously with our timeline, it's impossible to see everything... but i'd like to see some cool things.

If you can offer me any suggestions as to routes to take, places to stop, great places to eat (inexpensive.. hidden gems) along the way that would be great. I kind of almost feel like i'm insane compacting such a wonderful drive into basically two days. Maybe we should take an extra day for each drive?
Can you let me know what your opinions are? Thanks so much... This trip will be in late March, early April 2010, so any info on weather i should expect is appreciated too :)
Cheers!

Edit: I'm attaching the link from Google Maps to help give a visual representation of our trip.West Coast Road Trip

not possible

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

I'm sorry to tell you that your current plans just aren't close to be feasable. The coast highway is a very slow going highway with lots of curves, low speed limits, and traffic. There just is no way you'll be able to cover the kind of distances you are talking about and enjoy anything. Every single one of your legs on the way south is about twice as far as you'll be able to realistically travel.

You either need to give yourself much more time or cut out some rather large sections of coastal highway to make this trip possible.

Hmmm

Well thanks for the advice! We may need to go back to the drawing board with this one.

Our plan is to kind of rip through Washington State as quickly as possible (no offense to WA, i've just been in and around it hundreds of times..) and the last time we drove down we were able to get to Portland by 11:30 am (leaving Vancouver at 5am)

We are capable of driving for upwards to 10 hours or so each day... although as it is the first day would be a 14 hour drive to Crescent City without stopping... Obviously we want to stop places. I'm going to recommend taking an extra day or two for the first and third leg of the trip... It would be great to be able to stop a few times for at least an hour or so.

So yeah, like i said, maybe back to the drawing board. Can anyone offer me any info on the sizes of the roads along the coast down there? Are they anything like the Sea-to-Sky highway between Vancouver and Whistler? That route is very windy and can be treturous at times, but i also know how to handle it...
cheers

handle it?

As I already said, these are very curvy roads that see a lot of traffic. The route is built to be savored, not sped through. It won't be uncommon at all to get behind RVs or traffic moving 30-40 mph for long stretches, and quite frankly, much of the road shouldn't be traveled at speeds higher than that. Its not a dangerous road, but its pretty much the opposite of a superhighway.

Again, for every leg of driving along the coast you've got right now, you'd really need at least 2 days. Vancouver to Crescent City in 14 hours is beyond a fantasy land. Astoria to Crescent City alone will take 10 hours (driving virtually non-stop, ignoring all of the wonderful little towns, and skipping all of the scenic overlooks) and that doesn't even factor in the 1.5 hours it will take to get from I-5 to the coast.

Thanks :)

Thanks again for all the advice guys, you've been a great help.

With your information in mind, we now have a better idea of what to expect - plus google is my best friend... i was able to actually place myself on the H1 for sections of it and H101 to give me an idea of the roads in a 360 degree street view. Some absolutely beautiful views from there, i must say. With that said, my girlfriend is concerned about missing too much work, so we won't be able to add that much time on to our trip, but we've revised it like this:

Thu Mar 25, 2010  Longview, WA > Crescent City, CA  9h34
(Obviously we'll be stopping at some places on the way  we're prepared to be on the road for 15 hours this day) Any suggestions for places we absolutely need to stop at on this route?

Fri Mar 26, 2010  Crescent City, CA > San Jose, CA  9h58
Same deal here.. another 15 hours on the road. Yeah, it's a lot to take in. I'd love to be able to divide it to maybe half total, but given our time restraints, it's not going to be possible. Besides, this is supposed to be a whirlwind tour, and it leaves us the opportunity to do the drive again at another time.
But again, if you can suggest two or three places along this drive that we absolutely need to stop at, please do.

Tues Mar 30, 2010  San Francisco, CA > Anaheim, CA  10h35
Another 15-16 hour day of driving. Stopping along the way. San Simeon looks like a must stop place, also Morro Bay, Monterey, and the pier at Santa Monica.

good luck to you

I don't really see much point in offering suggestions on places to stop, as you won't have any time to enjoy anything we offer. Enjoy what you can see out your window, and during the couple brief moments you'll have to stop to refuel and stretch.

Since you aren't willing to make changes to your plan and want to fit "everything" into this trip, simply treat the entire thing like a notepad for places you can check out later when you have time to do a trip where you'll actually enjoy yourself and explore the hundreds of great places to check out along the way.

You may want to look at staying in San Simeon or Cambria instead of Morro Bay if you want to take a Hearst Castle tour. Make a reservation for the last tour of the day, go have dinner, and get a good night's sleep.